Earth Day

(x = space)

x

x

Earth Day

(2021)

x

And

With Earthlings there

Is a relationship

Dysfunctional and thus

Destructive,

So say

All the tops of trees

Burned

By acid rain

x

Earth survives

As it may

And sometimes must

Fight back

x

We’re only guessing

But with all the metal satellites

Surrounding,

You’d think we’d know

Earth better than

To ruin it

x

Yet we must ask

Victims of hurricanes:

The storm,

The flood that

Take one’s own

x

Earth was no friend,

And who is with them

Now?

Earth and Earthers,

I can only hope

x

Source of pleasure

Source of pain

(source of profit)

It is our world,

Though we eye another

It is our microcosm

And an old,

Old story

x

Moon who watches,

Heaven beyond,

Hell below,

Ten circles in the center

x

Everything we know

In the

Cosmic narrative

x

Maybe it’s time

To release Cartesian

Orientation,

Since lines really

Do not hold down anything

And are twisted when

New encounters

Overthrow

The old

(which is

discovery)

x

Time

To like the Earth

Again and like it better

We should know how

By now

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

Satellite over the coast.

x

Ramadan

(x = space)

x

x

Ramadan

(2021)

x

Ninth month in the lunar calendar,

A time for fasting and reflecting

On one’s faith and submission

To God’s will

x

At night, we eat

Though I think we might save it up

For the three days’ celebration

At the end, Eid al-Fitr

x

Many, so many, would try to go

To Mecca or Jerusalem;

Though as with everything else,

This time must be different:

It’s not safe to travel

For ourselves and for our neighbors,

So community will have to mean

Home stays

x

But the meaning is unchanged,

And I wish for my neighbors

Days of prayer and meaning

And a season of

So many blessings

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash

x

3 brief poems for the new year

3 brief poems for the new year

(x = space)

x

x

May I Sell You a Machine?

(end of December)

x

According to commercials

At this time of year,

We should be losing weight

x

Grinding on exercise machines,

Finding our food in a box,

Engaging meditation maybe

Thirty seconds, maybe

Less

x

I suppose the box companies

Are doing well

And companies that make

Machines—I wonder

That machines are always doing well

x

We lose weight,

They weigh us down

x

x

Contemporarities

(2021)

x

God, help us in new years

Whenever they begin

In calendars,

In life

x

When someone dies,

When someone comes to life

x

Because she or he is born,

Because there is a return

To life

After pain, as she says

x

When the formal feeling comes

And something after

x

x

Our Sci-Fi Lives

x

Now is the science-fiction time,

Far enough into

The twenty-first century

That we may have some expectations

For reverse magnetism

And anti-gravity

x

For cities in the air and mining solely

By machines, enough that humans

Have jobs again

In new alliances

x

But we know how to fix it, at least

I hope we do,

The Earth that we have harmed;

And when we go, the missions we take

With us will not harm

x

x

C L Couch

x

x

I was a suburban kid but grew up in or near mining and steel-making country.  And our city fell apart when the industries fell apart.  If they could come back in local and safe ways, I should be relieved and very glad.

x

After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –

The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’

And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’?

. . .

Emily Dickinson

x

Photo by Fabrício Severo on Unsplash

Saint Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Bishop Street, The Lough, Cork, Irlanda

x

A Domesday Counting

(x = space)

x

x

A Domesday Counting

x

It’s a count of calendars:

For some, the year

Has started with Advent

Or the solstice

x

There is the Jewish calendar

(look at the cornerstones

of buildings),

The Islamic calendar,

And the Chinese calendar

That will incite fireworks

As well

x

There are those who count

The days by weather

And the local seasons

x

We’ll watch and listen to

The fireworks in Sydney;

We’ll note the islands

Near Fiji where

The dateline says

The new year starts

x

All of our computers will

Tell us that it’s started

Not to mention resolutions

And all the sauerkraut

x

Which is to say

The new year is relative;

It is traditional

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

Year 2021 Is Coming

x

Domesday Book : Britain’s finest treasure | The National …

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk › domesday

Domesday [The Domesday Book] is Britain’s earliest public record. It contains the results of a huge survey of land and landholding commissioned by William I in 1085.

x

2021

(x = space)

x

x

2021

x

Say the new year

With me

We’ll be allowed to have

More expectations

By then

Except for the things that got

In the way

Of righteous living

All the ploys

In my land

In Washington

(no stimulus until I get my way;

hand him the derivative

fiddle while

Rome burns)

The groups that have socked

Billions

While those who live

Day by day struggle

To maintain

xxxxx Is this the saying that

xxxxx War is good

xxxxx For the economy?

There will be a

Reckoning,

Though we’ve got better

Living to do now

Maybe in November,

Starting

Maybe next year

For those still here

And breathing well, at last

x

C L Couch

x

x

Photo by Erwan Hesry on Unsplash

Perros-Guirec, France

National Day Fireworks

x